by Luis Vélez de Guevara translated by Harley Erdman
For an ensemble of 13+ with double casting Runtime: approximately 90 minutes
Wild Thing, a shortened version of the 1613 play The Mountiain Girl from La Vera, confronts gender in a way that feels astonishingly of-the-moment. Gila, a peasant girl who calls herself a man, furiously rejects the rules set out for her, preferring the life of a fierce warrior outlaw over subjugation to a husband and society. This extraordinary and constantly surprising play, that has everything from slapstick comedy to intense drama, is a larger-than-life tale of a heroic rebel who has been claimed as feminist, queer, and trans.
Photos from the 2019 UMass production. Director: Gina Kaufmann. Photo credits: Derek Fowles